Things Kenyans do daily explained by logic and science, e.g., sleeping during sermons

Kenyans have their own culture that has become unique and known throughout the world. Suffice our rich culture, we still do some things that puzzle us. Some are just human nature while other have more to do with being a Kenyan more than anything.

Even the most staunchChristian has suffered from this at least once. You pastor and your parents told you that it is the devil trying to test you, and you should fight it with prayer. The parallel of this statement is that prayer was the cause of your sleep, and you should also fight it with Prayer?

The Explanation

As illogical as this sounds, praying while sleeping actually works, but not by casting out the devil. It was more about getting you involved in the occurrences around you. Sermons usually involved the preacher giving you a monotonous scripted story with the occasional shouting an “amen” from you. But with a pastor having years of experience on how to make their voice comforting, they make you too comfortable to the point of sleeping.

Another reason has to do with prayer and sermon timelines. Sermons often happen at around midday after a lot of singing and other activities. At this time, the body has already digested its food and is on its last food reserves, leading to your body shutting down and resting to preserve your energy. You don’t hear people sleeping in the early morning sermons… maybe you do?

It’s almost unheard of, having a kitchen without a paper bag filled with more paper bags. My aunty personally washed these paper bags before “storing them” and never used them again.

The explanation

The reason for this is that we are taught by our parents not to waste what we have, including these plastic bags. The explanation for this is probably from our great-grandparents who had to go with bags for shopping and would actually need to store these paper bags to ensure they don’t buy new ones when they shop. They passed this “paper-storing gene” to their kids and it eventually became a culture.

Almost all households in Kenya have Saturday as the day they clean the house. You will find your mum up early Saturday morning clean the toilet like she just got rid of a dead body. Children dreaded this because they were either commanded to help or guilt tripped to help. Either way, your Saturday morning cartoon session was ruined.

The explanation

Saturday was considered a cleaning day because this is the off day for many parents. In the US and many developed countries, you are paid by the hour and could find yourself working at any time even on a Saturday.

In Kenya Sunday is church day where you wake up and dress up, go to church come in the afternoon and eat remnants fromSaturday dinner or taken for lunch because for some reason no one will cook on Sunday. No cleaning will be done on Sunday.

This is the biggest Kenyan lie. Studies show that men speak just as much as women and gossip even more. One would wonder why the saying ,“wacha kuongea mingi kama ma ma” so prominent in our culture.

The explanation

Simple, men created it to deflect their fears. This is perhaps the best “trump-ism” I know of. Trump would be proud. Deflect something to another so much that the world and even they believe it to be true. Sadly, this does not just happen in Kenya but the rest of the world.

If you are a guy just think about it, are you really more quiet than a womani? really think. How often do you talk about someone who is not there…really Think? I think you have your answer now!

This always makes my day! Some Narobian Millennial walks in a crowded, noisy matatu earphones plugged in. #Why_ Millennial… why? As dangerous as this is(I don’t have to explain why) you often see it almost every day.

The explanation

The reason is simple the millennial Kenyan craves content, the content of their choice and will not be subjected to matatus shoving down their music to them. If you try plugging in earphones in a noisy matatu you know, you will often lose that battle as you will still hear the matatu music.

Another reason would be they just want to appear busier than they are. And most of the timen those earphones don’t even work and it's all a performance.

Since we are talking about phones, you will often hear someone's conversation in a very public setting narrating a story to the person on the other end and everyone around them. The simple reason for this is that we crave an audience we can see, and since you can't see the person on the call, we shout it at passers by, we are all social beings.

Just like we are social beings, we are also liers. How many times has someone told you “ndio natoka/ndio nafika/give me five minutes and so on?

The explanation

Why do we lie so much on the phone even when we don’t need t?. By the phone being mobile, no one can actually know where you are or what you are doing… giving humanity a chance to manipulate reality and show who we really are, liars by nature.